Locally, nationally, globally, the number of children being medicated is growing. The growing incidences of diabetes, asthma, and diagnosis with regard to the autism spectrum are all playing a role. Medco, with corporate offices in Franklin Lakes, NJ, issued their 2010 Drug Trend Report which raised red flags with over 25% of insured children in the U.S. and nearly 30 percent of adolescents taking at least one medication for a chronic health condition.
According to Dr. Robert S. Epstein, Medco’s chief medical officer and president of the Medco Research Institute, “The fact that one-in-three adolescents are being treated for a chronic condition points to the need for additional health education and lifestyle changes that can address the obesity issue that is likely a driving force behind such conditions as type 2 diabetes and even asthma.”
Another Medco physician, Dr. David Muzina, reflected “Atypical antipsychotics are extremely powerful drugs that are being used far too commonly – especially in children – given their safety issues and side effects.”
The New York Times published an article in the spring of 2010 that explored the evolution of psychiatry in America. Dr. Daniel Carlat, a psychiatrist, wrote a first hand account of how the psychiatry industry today is dominated by the practice of psychopharmacology, and psychoanalyis is practiced by only a small percentage of psychiatrists. “…psychiatry has been transformed from a profession in which we talk to people and help them understand their problems into one in which we diagnose disorders and medicate them.”
In an analysis of research reports on seven new antidepressants compiled by the FDA, it was found that of the 19,000 subjects in the studies showed a measured 40% improvement while in the drug study. The same analysis of those reports also indicated that the same subjects showed a measured 30% improvement while on a placebo. This would indicate that only a small improvement in depression between taking a drug and a sugar pill.
The idea of children taking drugs never fully tested for their age group has been a concern for some years. Frontline conducted an investigative report in 2008 that examined both sides of the debate. Arguing the benefits of early drug therapy intervention, Dr. Kiki Chang explains, “The theory is that if you get in early…then perhaps we can delay the onset…”